Mummers’
Plays, also known as mumming, are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes
of actors known as mummers or guisers (performers in disguise) originally
from England but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes
performed in the street but more usually as house-to-house visits and in
public houses.

Although
the term “mummers” has been used since medieval times, no play scripts
or performance details survive from that era, and the term may have been
used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds. Mumming
may have precedents in German and French carnival customs, with rare but
close parallels also in late medieval England

The
earliest evidence of mummers’ plays as they are known today, usually
involving a magical cure by a quack doctor, is from the mid to late 18th
century.

Mummers
and “guisers” can be traced back at least to the Middle Ages, though
when the term “mummer” appears in medieval manuscripts it is rarely
clear what sort of performance was involved. A key element was visiting
people in disguise at Christmas.

Although
usually broadly comic performances, the plays seem to be based on
underlying themes of duality and resurrection and generally involve a
battle between two or more characters, perhaps representing good against
evil. Usually they feature a doctor who has a magic potion which is able
to resuscitate a slain character.

In
mummers’ plays, the central incident is the killing and restoring to
life of one of the characters. The characters may be introduced in a
series of short speeches (usually in rhyming couplets) in which each
personage has his own introductory announcement, or they may introduce
themselves in the course of the play’s action. The principal characters,
presented in a wide variety of manner and style, are a Hero, his chief
opponent, the Fool, and a quack Doctor; the defining feature of mumming
plays is the Doctor, and the main purpose of the fight is to provide him
with a patient to cure. The hero sometimes kills and sometimes is killed
by his opponent; in either case, the doctor comes to restore the dead man
to life.

The
name of the hero is most commonly Saint George, King George, or Prince
George. His principal opponents are the Dragon and the Turkish Knight.
Other characters include: Old Father Christmas, who introduces some plays,
little Devil Doubt (who demands money from the audience), and Robin Hood.